


Compromise

by bar2d2s



Category: The Flash (Comics)
Genre: M/M, alcohol mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 05:18:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3924313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bar2d2s/pseuds/bar2d2s
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Around day three of their ‘break, not break up’, Owen decided it would be best for everyone if he was just in a constant state of drinking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Compromise

Around day three of their ‘break, not break up’, Owen decided it would be best for everyone if he was just in a constant state of drinking.

Wake up, grab a beer. Lunch? Better get some more beer. Shift in the wind? Time for beer! Past five? Switch to whiskey. Repeat until failure of liver.

The best part of all this, was that Owen knew. He  _knew_. This wasn’t a break, because boyfriends don’t completely vanish off the face of the Earth when it’s a break. Axel wasn’t in his fort, or Owen’s bed, or on the couch, or in either of the cities they routinely ransacked. Axel packed up and left, because Owen was an idiot.

“I’ve been putting some money aside after every job.” He’d said to him. “I was thinking, why don’t we just get a place? That way you don’t have to sleep in the hallway all the time.”

Axel wasn’t ready. He wasn’t nearly at that level. He was just barely eighteen. He was still 90% in the closet. Owen was his first boyfriend. Owen was his first most things. But he was a kid, and Owen was twenty-four, and Axel just couldn’t see himself sharing a bed and a bathroom and a kitchen and a  _life_  with his first boyfriend.

So he ran.

“I just need some time to think.” That was code. Every man on the planet knew that was code. It basically meant, “No. No way. No chance in hell. I’m changing my number.”

But Axel was a Rogue. That was his chosen career path. That’s what he wanted to do with his life. So of course, he didn’t  _actually_  up and leave town. No, he’d just run to the most unlikely of people, and the most unlikely of places.

He went home.

His mother was…less than pleased to see him. He was a wanted criminal, after all. But he was her son, and he was all she had left, really.

“Mom, I’m gay. And my boyfriend wants us to move in together. And he’s a supervillain too. And I’m…I don’t know.” He couldn’t say 'scared’, because he wasn’t scared. He’d been to jail. He’d fallen five stories into a dumpster. He’d been choked by Captain Cold. Axel wasn’t scared of  _monogamy_.

Except he really sort of was, and his mom confirmed it for him. He was just like his father, really. Prone to wandering.

But he  _wasn’t_. He didn’t want to be with anyone else, he just didn’t want to be with Owen. Not then and there, anyway. His mother’s smile was annoyingly smug, and Axel found it worrisome of how much it reminded him of Mark.

Day five of their 'break, not break up’, and Owen was picking fights. Verbal fights, physical fights, fights with weapons, fights with powers. He just wanted something to hit so that he’d stop beating himself up. When he broke a half-full vodka bottle over the table, however, Len decided that something needed to be done.

It took three days for Axel to remember why he’d left home in the first place. His mom was so irritatingly understanding about everything, it made him feel bad that he wasn’t in any way living up to her expectations. Which meant he had to get out,  _now_.

Day seven of their 'break, not break up’, Axel came back. He looked tired, but clean. He was wearing one of Owen’s shirts, and the damn thing was practically a dress on him. Owen was nowhere to be found, so he sought out Mark.

“Len’s drying him out, in his room.” He’d been a day late for the intervention. There was drinking to forget, and then there was drinking to obliterate. Owen had been locked in his room until further notice, but Axel could pick that lock deaf and blind. The bedroom was dark, but what got to him was the quiet. Only the faint sound of Owen’s breaths could be heard, nothing more. No computers whirring, no records playing, just a sad, lonely man, breathing alone in his room. Axel’s footfalls echoed in the silence. He stopped by the bed, but Owen didn’t sit up.

“Hi.”

At his voice, the older man stirred, then winced. “…you came back?” Axel crawled into bed with him, not bothering to kick off his shoes.

“No fucking duh I came back. Like I was just gonna, gonna run away or something.”

Owen moved quickly, for someone suffering a week’s worth of hangovers all at once. He seized Axel in a fierce embrace, holding him to his chest and refusing to let go. Thankfully, Len had shoved him in the shower earlier, which meant he smelled less of booze and vomit, and more like Irish Spring and uncontrollable sadness. And then he started to talk.

“I’m an idiot and you’re a kid and I’m pretty sure I drank half the money I put away this week and you’re too young to live alone with some creepy, drunk, chain-smoking wanted criminal, but if you ever leave again, I’m afraid I’ll just not wake up one day and I know that sounds needy and pathetic but that’s the truth and.” Owen took a deep breath. “I can’t lose you.” Axel looked at him, to make sure he was finished.

“I went to see my mom.” Owen raised a brow. “She wants to meet you. I mean, that’s never gonna happen, but she totally wants to.” He laughed, and Axel joined in. “I’m so tired. I haven’t slept for like four days. Your shirt doesn’t even smell like you anymore, mom washed it.”

Owen peeled him out of his clothes, with their unfamiliar scents. Axel’s skin was smooth, and he smelled like lady shampoo. Owen wanted to shove him in the shower, scrub him down until he smelled like Axel again, but then Axel was clinging to his chest. Kiss-biting his shoulder, like he did when he wanted to say something, but couldn’t figure out the words.  _Take your time_ , Owen didn’t say.

“When I left, I thought I was gonna come back and break up with you.” Owen’s nails dug into the flesh of his lower back. “But I’m not. Because I don’t wanna be with anyone else, I’m just not ready to declare to the world that I’m with you.” His mom knew, and the Rogues knew, why did anyone else need to know? It wasn’t any of their business. And he was…scared. Because he’d heard of all the stuff that was said about Piper, and Axel wasn’t anything like him. Axel was a loyal Rogue, damnit.

But Owen got it. He understood. Axel didn’t even like to be unmasked around the others, because you could see everything in his face. How excited he was to be there, how much he respected his ‘mentors’…how gone he was on Owen. It’s why they rarely went out together, because Axel was convinced that everyone would just  _know_.

“We don’t have to leave. We don’t have to do anything until you’re ready. Ax, you’re worth waiting for.”

And god, did those words just push every negative thought directly out of his head. It was as good as a declaration of eternal love, to Axel. Which, technically, it was. Axel bit his shoulder again, pulling at the material of Owen’s shirt with his teeth. Owen took the hint, shucking off his shirt, then kicking until his pants followed.

Owen was too hungover for strenuous physical activity, so he just curled around Axel protectively. “No fort tonight.” He whispered hoarsely, rubbing his hands up and down Axel’s back. Axel bit his lip.

“How about…no fort ever?” The hands stilled. “If you want.”

They wouldn’t be moving out, but they’d be sharing the same space. Sleeping in the same bed. Waking up every day to each others bed hair and morning breath. Axel would still be able to have the choice to not be there, if he didn’t want to be. But for now, he  _did_  want to be. He wanted to be with Owen. Owen grinned.

It was a compromise he could live with.


End file.
